a fanfic by SonnyandAlexisGal
Chapter Nine
Mike manages to grab Roscoe’s arm and points the barrel of the gun he’s holding to the side as they struggle. Roscoe is determined and that determination gives him strength. Mike, too, is determined – determined that the next bullet fired from the gun in Roscoe’s hand will not do damage to anyone.
Roscoe holds firmly onto his gun and manages to knee Mike in the groin.
Mike drops to the floor in a heap, knowing that he has endangered himself but temporarily frozen in place, paralyzed by the pain.
Roscoe smiles and takes aim.
Sonny makes it around a nearby rack at that precise second.
“Roscoe!” Sonny yells.
Roscoe’s mind shifts into gear quickly, knowing that chances are slim that he can salvage any of the operation and remain alive. Still, he has this one last chance to do what he came back to Port Charles to do – to kill Sonny Corinthos.
He spins around, his arm raised, his finger beginning to squeeze the trigger.
Sonny’s gun fires first, the barrel pointed at Roscoe’s chest.
Instinctively, Roscoe’s free hand comes to his chest wound. He touches the wound and then holds the hand in front of his face, looking at the blood on it – his blood.
He looks across the aisle at Sonny and aims once more.
Another gunshot pierces the air, again connecting with its target.
Roscoe’s arm drops first, the gun in his hand landing on the floor in front of him. His knees buckle. His eyes close as he falls to the floor.
He lays still.
Mike makes his way over to Roscoe and searches his neck for a pulse.
“Is he dead?” Sonny calls, his body locked in the position of a man who has just fired a gun.
Mike locates the correct spot on Roscoe’s neck.
There is no pulse.
“He’s dead,” Mike answers.
Slowly, Sonny’s arm drops to his side – his hand still clutching the gun. He makes his way over to where Roscoe’s body lay, still shaken that once again he’d been forced to shoot someone to death.
“You okay?” Sonny manages.
“I’m okay,” Mike answers. “But I’d probably be dead if…Oh my God, where’s Alexis?”
“Alexis?” Sonny repeats, alarmed. “What do you mean? What about Alexis?”
Mike stands and Sonny follows.
“If Alexis hadn’t called out to warn me…”
“Alexis?” Sonny calls as he looks around. “Where was she?”
“I’m not sure,” Mike says. “In one of the aisles, I guess…”
“Alexis?” Sonny yells, his eyes darting around the space, looking for some sign of her. “Alexis, where are you?”
Just then, Mike’s eyes catch sight of something sticking past one of the racks of shelves in a nearby aisle.
He realizes that what he’s seeing is the bottom of a shoe – a woman’s shoe.
“Over there!” he calls as he rushes over to it.
Sonny follows Mike and his heart begins to pound as he sees what Mike sees – Alexis’s foot on the floor and, as they move closer, Alexis.
She is lying on her stomach in a slowly widening pool of blood.
“Alexis!” Sonny says as he crouches down and turns her over.
Her eyes are closed.
“Alexis honey,” Sonny says frantically as he moves her hair out of her face. “Wake up. Open your eyes…”
“She must’ve caught the bullet that Roscoe meant for me…”
“Alexis?” Sonny repeats as he checks for her pulse. “It’s faint…She’s losing too much blood…” He quickly reaches into his pocket and pulls out his cell phone. He dials 911. “Yeah, listen. There’s been a shooting on the waterfront – the abandoned warehouse at slip 19. A woman is badly hurt…Just get down here!!” He tosses aside the cell phone. He takes off his coat, bundles it, and then presses it as firmly as he can to the wound just below her left shoulder. “You gotta be strong, Alexis,” he tells her. “You gotta hang on because help is coming…”
“I’ll go outside and wait for them,” he says quietly as he stands.
“Alexis,” Sonny continues while tenderly stroking her face with one hand and pressing against her wound with the other, keeping his voice as steady as he can. “Hang on, honey. You’re gonna be alright just…just hang on…”
____________________________________________________
Taggart bursts into Mac Scorpio’s office at police headquarters.
“Just got a call,” he says. “There’s been a shooting at the abandoned warehouse on the waterfront – slip 19. Whoever called it in said that a woman’s been hurt. An ambulance is on its way to General Hospital…”
Mac stands quickly and heads for the door, Taggart close behind.
“Let’s check it out!” he says.
_________________________________________________
Sonny and Mike follow behind as the emergency attendants wheel an unconscious Alexis into the emergency room at General Hospital.
Mike stops at the door of the emergency room but Sonny follows the gurney inside.
“She’s going into shock!” Dr. Tony Jones says as he listens through his stethoscope to Alexis’ heart rate. “Replace the bag and we need whole blood for a transfusion – stat! Sonny?”
He doesn’t answer; he’s staring at Alexis – bloody and unconscious on the gurney in front of him.
“Sonny!” Tony yells. “Was she conscious at all?”
Sonny forces himself to concentrate.
“Uh…no. She was unconscious when we got to her. Couldn’t have been more than a minute…”
“We need to stabilize the patient and then get her on up to surgery,” Tony tells the trauma team.
“Yes, doctor,” the attending nurse says.
“I’m going to have to ask you to get out of here, Sonny.”
“I can’t leave her alone…”
“And we can’t do our job with you in the way,” Tony tells him.
Sonny looks at Tony and relents.
“Just don’t…” he begins, trying to force the words out. “Just don’t let her die…”
“We’re doing everything we can,” Tony says.
Sonny backs out of the emergency room, never taking his eyes off of Alexis as she lies motionless. Once he’s outside, the ambulance attendants step out as well, letting the door close behind them.
“She’s gonna make it, Michael,” Mike quietly reassures.
Sonny moves closer to the door and stares through the glass at Alexis – lying on the gurney, the trauma team working at keeping her alive.
“She has to, Mike,” he says. “She has to…”
____________________________________________________
Sonny paces back and forth outside the emergency room. The hustle and bustle inside has subsided somewhat. Sonny’s eyes catch sight of the heart monitor that is connected to Alexis. Blip, blip, blip. Her heartbeat looks steadier than it was when she was first brought in.
At least, he hopes that it is.
“Can I get you some coffee?” Mike offers.
Sonny shakes his head no.
“I wonder what’s happening in there,” he whispers.
Just then, Mac Scorpio and Marcus Taggart come walking toward him.
“Alright, Corinthos,” Taggart begins smugly. “What happened this time?”
“Not now…” he says as he continues to stare into the emergency room.
“A woman has been shot and a dead body was found nearby,” Taggart states. “Now, you’re coming down to the station to answer as many questions as we want to ask…”
“Whatever you want to know, you’re gonna have to ask me here…”
“Corinthos…”
“Sonny,” Mac interrupts, “what happened?”
“Listen,” Mike begins, “I can answer whatever questions you’ve got…”
Mac looks at Sonny, realizing that he is completely disconnected to anything that they’re saying.
“Fine,” Mac says. “Let’s go into the waiting room.”
Mike heads in that direction and Mac follows.
Taggart wanders over behind Sonny and looks into the emergency room at Alexis.
“You got your first wife killed,” he says. “Now Alexis Davis may be next on your list. How many innocent people are gonna have to die because of you, Sonny boy?”
Taggart’s words hit their mark but Sonny does not react.
“Maybe she asked for it, huh, Sonny? After all, she agreed to defend you. Must have had a death wish…”
Taggart leaves.
Sonny takes a deep breath and tries not to think about what Taggart said to him. He doesn’t have time to dwell on that. He has to concentrate on Alexis.
She has to make it.
Sonny sees Tony Jones walking toward the door and takes a step or two backward.
“How is she?” Sonny asks as soon as Tony opens the door.
“She’s stable – finally,” Tony answers. “They’re going to take her up to the OR so that they can get that wound sewed up. The bullet passed completely through -- tore her up pretty bad. That’s why she lost so much blood…”
“She’s gonna, you know…she’s gonna be alright, though – right?”
“Like I said, she’s stable right now. They’ll do everything that they can to keep her that way.”
Just then, the doors open and Alexis is wheeled out.
Sonny walks away from Tony and begins to follow the gurney toward the elevator.
Tony is behind him.
“How come she won’t wake up?” Sonny asks, quietly.
“She’s lost a lot of blood,” Tony answers.
The elevator doors open and the gurney is wheeled inside.
Sonny follows and Tony steps into the elevator behind him.
“She’s got a good chance, Sonny,” he reassures. "I'll be observing in the OR."
He bends down next to Alexis’ ear.
“Alexis?” he whispers. “It’s Sonny. I’m right here with you…They’re gonna fix you up and, you know, they won’t let me come in there but…I’m gonna be right outside, waitin’ for you – no matter how long it takes. I’m not gonna leave you…”
The doors open on the seventh floor.
The gurney is pushed out, Sonny and Tony following behind.
“This is as far as you go,” Tony tells him. “The waiting room is right over there.”
“Wait a minute!” Sonny yells as they begin to wheel Alexis into the operating room. He looks at her and it strikes him how vulnerable she looks on that gurney – eyes closed, her torn shirt replaced by a hospital gown, the IV in her arm. He bends down next to her again. “I love you,” he whispers. “I need you…to come back to me…Remember, I’ll be right out here, waitin’ for you…” He tenderly kisses her forehead. “Don’t you give up, okay?”
The attendants wheel Alexis through the doors. Tony puts a hand on Sonny’s shoulder before following them inside.
“I need you, Alexis,” he whispers to himself. “Don’t you leave me…”
___________________________________________________
Sonny paces back and forth across the waiting room, oblivious to his surroundings.
All he can think about is Alexis and what might be going on in the operating room.
The elevator doors open and out walks Mac Scorpio and Mike, followed closely by Taggart.
“Sonny,” Mac says as he approaches. “How’s Alexis?”
“She’s in surgery…”
“Okay, I got as much information out of Mike as I could…but I need to know from you…what happened.”
“Uh…I got back home late that day – after seven, I think,” Sonny answers as he continues to pace. “Anyway Kristina came busting in as usual, you know -- telling me that she hadn’t heard from Alexis all day. She said that somebody – one of Alexis’ clients or something – had left a message on the machine – something about where was Alexis and why she wasn’t in court that morning…”
“And that checks out with what Kristina and Ned told us when they filed the missing persons report…Then what happened?”
“I had one of my guys go down to the garage and check for her car. It was gone…So was the bodyguard that I’d put on her…Her attaché case…was…still in the chair…”
“And when did this guy Roscoe first contact you?”
“Not for awhile. Maybe…maybe a day or so later – after we reported her missing…”
“And?”
“And he told me that he had Alexis!” Sonny snaps. “Stop wasting my time!”
“We’re just trying to get the story straight. That’s all.”
“None of that matters anymore!” Sonny yells. “The only important thing right now is that Alexis is in there – being operated on. That’s the only thing I got time for right now!”
“Look, Corinthos…” Taggart begins as he approaches Sonny, “if this was some kind of a turf war…”
“Was there anyone else in this with Roscoe?” Mac asks as he pulls Taggart back.
Sonny shrugs.
“I don’t think so…”
“Okay,” Mac says. “I think we’ve got enough for now…We’ll be back later, Sonny…”
Mac motions at Taggart to come along. He does – reluctantly.
“I’ll be here,” Sonny says, wearily.
Mike watches as Taggart and Mac step into the elevator and the doors close.
He slowly approaches Sonny.
“Can…can I get you anything?” he asks.
Sonny shakes his head no.
“Have you heard anything about how the surgery is going?”
“Not yet…”
“This is not your fault, Michael.”
Sonny laughs.
“Yeah, right…”
“You did everything that you could do to get Alexis out of there.”
“She shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” Sonny says.
“You did what you could do.”
“I should’ve done more,” Sonny dismisses. “I should have kept her safe from the beginning…I let her down, Mike…”
Sonny resumes pacing and Mike watches, wondering what he can say that might make him accept that what happened to Alexis was not his fault.
Mike sits in one of the chairs and continues to watch.
“Maybe you should call Francis or Max and have them bring you a change of clothes,” Mike suggests.
Sonny stops and looks at his clothes, remembering that he has Alexis’ blood all over him – his shirt, his pants, his hands…
He shrugs.
“It’ll have to wait…”
The elevator opens and out bursts Kristina, followed closely by Ned and Jax.
Mike stands.
She freezes when she sees Sonny standing there.
“Oh, my God!” she exclaims, looking at the blood on his clothes. “Sonny, what happened to my sister?”
“She uh…she was shot…”
The words take all three of them by surprise – Alexis was shot.
Kristina’s hands immediately cover her mouth.
“Oh no…”
“How bad is she?” Jax asks.
“Pretty bad,” Sonny answers. “They’re operating on her right now…”
“Who’s in there?” Ned manages once the ability to speak returns.
“Tony Jones. I don’t know anybody else’s name…”
“Oh my God, Sonny!” Kristina screams, the tears running down her face. She comes at him with fists bared and begins to pound on his chest. “You nearly killed my sister!”
Jax grabs Kristina away from Sonny. She buries her face in his chest as he holds her in his arms.
“That won’t help Alexis,” he reminds her.
“For your information, Kristina,” Mike adds, “Sonny saved your sister’s life. The ambulance attendants said that if he hadn’t applied pressure to her wound before they got there, she would have bled to death before she ever got to a hospital…”
“It’s okay, Mike,” Sonny says quietly.
“Her life would never have been in danger in the first place if it weren’t for Sonny,” Ned says.
Kristina manages to stop crying as she lets go of Jax.
“All I know is that I don’t care what Alexis says. I’m going to do everything in my power to see that you never come near my sister again!”
Sonny stares at her for a moment -- his guilt tearing him up inside.
Then he calmly resumes pacing, rarely taking his eyes off of the door that the gurney carrying Alexis disappeared behind.
“Look,” Mike begins, “there are more important things to think about right now besides pointing fingers and making threats…”
“Mike is right,” Jax says. “Alexis needs us all pulling in the same direction. Why don’t we all just concentrate on that?”
__________________________________________________
Sonny sits on the edge of his chair, still staring at the door. Jax paces nearby. Ned sits next to Kristina on the sofa, holding her hand and trying not to let on how frightened he is. Mike sits in a chair and watches – his eyes darting from Sonny to Kristina to Ned and back to the door.
Sonny stands up from his seat and looks up at the clock. It has been more than four hours since Alexis was wheeled into the operating room. About two hours earlier, an intern walked out of the operating theater, announcing that the patient was still holding her own.
‘The patient’, Sonny mind repeats. That little punk was talking about Alexis. The least he could have done was to have learned her name.
Just then – through the doors – Sonny sees Dr. Tony Jones approaching.
He stands at attention.
The doors swing open and Tony walks out, wearing his surgical scrubs.
“How is she?” Kristina blurts out as she shoots to her feet and over to where Tony is standing.
Ned follows as Jax and Mike stand.
“The operation went well and Alexis is in the recovery room,” Tony announces. “The bullet did quite a bit of damage but we managed to repair it all.”
“So she’ll be alright?” Jax asks.
“The next twenty-four to forty-eight hours will be critical. If she makes it through the next couple of days, I have every reason to believe that she’ll recover completely.”
Kristina lets out a deep breath of relief and throws her arms around Ned’s neck.
“Thank you, Tony,” Ned says.
“Don’t thank me,” Tony says. “It’s my job.” He steps closer to Sonny. “Alexis will be unconscious for a couple of hours yet. Why don’t you go home and get some rest. You’re going to need it these next couple of days…”
Sonny shakes his head no.
“Why don’t you just leave, Sonny?” Ned says. “Haven’t you done enough already?”
“Look,” Sonny begins, “I understand how you feel about me, Ned. You always make it pretty clear. But neither you nor Kristina nor Jax is gonna make me leave this hospital. I won’t leave Alexis. I don’t care what any of you wants…”
“This in-fighting isn’t doing Alexis any good,” Tony says. “The last thing she needs is to wake up to all of this. Now if you can’t keep things civil, you might as well leave now because you’ll only slow her recovery…”
“You’re right,” Ned says. “I’m sorry…”
“Don’t apologize to me, Ned,” Tony says. “Just remember what I said…”
“When can I see her?” Kristina asks.
“As I said, Alexis will be unconscious for quite awhile. You can wait out here for her to regain consciousness, if you like. Or you can take my advice and use the time to get some rest of your own.”
“Thanks again, Dr. Jones,” Sonny says quietly.
Tony nods before walking off.
Sonny approaches Mike.
“I’m gonna be here for awhile,” he says quietly. “Can you go back to my apartment and get me another shirt and a pair of pants? I don’t…I don’t want Alexis to see me like this…”
“Sure,” Mike says. “You need to get cleaned up, too, Michael…”
“I know…” Sonny says as he looks down at the blood still staining his hands.
“Will you be alright?”
“I’m fine, Mike,” Sonny answers. “I’m fine.”
“Okay,” he says – not believing a word. “I’ll be back as soon as I can…”
“Thanks,” Sonny says.
He walks over to a chair and plops down – exhausted both physically and emotionally. He watches Kristina, Ned, and Jax huddling together, trying to wait patiently before they can see Alexis. He sees Mike stepping into the elevator. He knows how anxious he is to see Alexis – to reassure himself that she’s alright.
Like I told you, he tells Alexis in his mind. I’m here, sweetheart.
He pulls himself to his feet and begins to pace once more.
I’m not gonna leave you, Alexis, he tells her and himself.
I promise…
____________________________________________________
Almost two hours later – in a fresh shirt and pants, all visible signs of what happened washed away -- Sonny wanders around, concealing himself from whoever passes by keeping a low profile and quietly hiding wherever possible. He remembers that this is the way to the recovery room. This is the way to where Alexis is.
He approaches a closed door that looks vaguely familiar and is about to put his hand on the knob when it suddenly opens. Sonny steps back into the dark corner and waits to be discovered. Luckily the nurse decides to go in the opposite direction.
Once it’s clear, Sonny steps to the door and peers in through the glass.
There she is.
Sonny quickly looks around the room to see whether or not anyone is there who will try to keep him out. There is no one visible so he twists the doorknob and slowly enters the recovery room.
As he approaches where Alexis lies, he is again struck by how very vulnerable she looks -- no make-up and a bit pale. He pulls a chair close to her bed and sits, never taking his eyes off of her.
Why do things like this always happen to the people I love, he asks himself. Why not me? I’m the one that chose this life. Why does my choice keep on hurting everybody else?
Sonny reaches up to the bed and cautiously grabs hold of her hand. Its surface is cool from the air conditioning but warm underneath. Her hand feels so very small in his.
“I’ll make sure to keep you safe from now on – whatever it takes,” Sonny tells her in a low voice. “Nothin’ like this is ever gonna happen to you again.”
Suddenly something catches the corner of Sonny’s eye – a movement of some kind.
He looks at Alexis’ face and sees her eyes fluttering – trying to open.
His heart begins to pound.
Slowly her eyes open once and then close again. They open again and they blink – once, twice, three times. Then they remain open for longer.
Alexis feels someone holding her hand and looks to her left.
She looks up into a pair of moist and tender brown eyes.
“Hi,” Sonny manages.
A faint smile crosses her lips.